"I'm kind of toasted. But I looked at my watch and it's only 6:30 so I can't stop drinking yet." - Yooper's Bob"Brown eye finally recovered after the abuse it endured in Ptown last weekend, but it took almost a full week." - Paulie"no, he just doesn't speak 'stupid'. i, however, am fluent...." - motobrewer"... I'll go both ways." - Melana

Played hooky from work yesterday and went by our brand new Atwoods. It's like a farming store but they have everything. Anyway, as I was walking the isles, I saw a 20 foot roll of 3/8 ID copper tubing for 19.95. Did I jump on that, HELL YES! Also found 10 feet of 3/8 clear plastic hose for 2.28. Jumped on that as well. I just now have to rig up some way of hooking that 3/8 hose to my kitchen tap. One thing that did concern me was the plastic hose has a heat rating of 175F. Is that too low for chilling wort? I figure I could adjust the flow so that the water coming out is not steaming hot. OR bend the copper in a way so that the exit line dumps directly into the sink. But now this problem, just how in the hell do you bend a copper line so that you have no kinks? I started messing with it yesterday and got the majority of it in the brew pot, but the in and out lines, I couldn't bend them 90 degrees with kinking up the lines. Any ideas???

There is a device made specifically for bending tubing without kinking. It's a relatively snug fitting spring coil that you slide over the tubing in the location where you want to bend. Then you bend the tube and slide the spring off. An auto parts store would have them because they're used to custom-bend brake and fuel lines. Of course, you'll need a big one for the 1/2 OD stuff.

In a pinch, try carefully bending it over a radius like a soup can rather than making a super-tight 90.

BTW, your output water will be very hot to the touch, but it won't be too much over 180. Even if it is, it will only be so for a short time so your vinyl tubing will be fine. You did pick up some hose clamps right? It gets mighty soft and will definitely leak or fall off without the clamps.

Yeah, I got HOSE CLAMPS out the yeng yang. I bent it the best I could so I now need advice as to how to hook it up and what would YOU do? One piece, the top part, sticks out past the brewing pot, the other, goes straight up along the pot but I couldn't get it to bend over the pot. So, which line would you use for the in and which for the out? I plan on using two hose clamps on the line that comes up above the wort but doesn't get over the pot, that is the line that starts at the bottom. I know the most important thing is that no water can drip back into the wort, hence the need for two clamps, as an insurance measure. I kind of think to have the cold in start at the bottom and work its way up to the top. Or should I do it the other way around?

Nah, that's the other end of the state for me. I go out to Rensselaer, NY, it's a little more than an hour west of me. There's another place in Northampton that I've been to once (http://www.beer-winemaking.com/), I just like the place in NY a little better. Just a nice little shop, the guys who work there are real friendly (I forgot to have them ring up a bung plug for me, they told me to just take it on the house). I also know that they have pretty much everything I could need.

"I'm kind of toasted. But I looked at my watch and it's only 6:30 so I can't stop drinking yet." - Yooper's Bob"Brown eye finally recovered after the abuse it endured in Ptown last weekend, but it took almost a full week." - Paulie"no, he just doesn't speak 'stupid'. i, however, am fluent...." - motobrewer"... I'll go both ways." - Melana